Crew Coaching Search Down To Finalists

Chicago's quick move to hire Frank Yallop as its coach surprised the Crew, but team president and general manager Mark McCullers said it has no impact on the club's ongoing search for its own coach.

"It doesn't impact our finalists," McCullers told The Dispatch last night. "Frank was not a finalist for us."

With a publicly stated goal of having a new coach hired by mid-November, McCullers said the Crew is on pace to reach that mark. Two weeks ago, McCullers said the Crew hoped to be down to six finalists by the end of this week.

Chicago’s quick move to hire Frank Yallop as its coach surprised the Crew, but team president and general manager Mark McCullers said it has no impact on the club’s ongoing search for its own coach.

“It doesn’t impact our finalists,” McCullers told The Dispatch last night. “Frank was not a finalist for us.”

With a publicly stated goal of having a new coach hired by mid-November, McCullers said the Crew is on pace to reach that mark. Two weeks ago, McCullers said the Crew hoped to be down to six finalists by the end of this week.

Now, the Crew is set on its finalists but not divulging their quantity. According to Grant Wahl at Sports Illustrated, “ a decision is expected in the next five days, and I’m told Gregg Berhalter’s stock has been rising for the Crew job.” McCullers said no new candidates have emerged in the last two weeks.

Technical director and interim coach Brian Bliss is one of the finalists, McCullers confirmed.

Crew investor-operator Anthony Precourt and McCullers have solicited input from club ambassador Frankie Hejduk and Andrew Arthurs, the executive director of Crew Juniors, throughout the process. The final decision will be made by Precourt and McCullers, however.

“The next step is to identify and agree upon a leading candidate and start work on a financial arrangement to see if we can come to an agreement with that leading candidate,” McCullers said. “We still are utilizing Frankie and Andrew, but when we get into negotiation mode, which I think will be very soon, we’ll narrow it down to me and Anthony at that point.”